Enrollment on the rise in city's public schools

WORCESTER — Enrollment is up in city schools, according to preliminary numbers the superintendent gave the School Committee Thursday night.

Melinda Boone told the committee in her school opening report that 516 more students enrolled this year than by Oct. 1 last year. North High School alone has taken on 57 new students; Columbus Park added 51 students this academic year, according to Ms. Boone's report.

Ms. Boone cautioned that those numbers still have to be "scrubbed" in advance of the Oct. 1 reporting deadline for enrollment, but she noted that the committee's commitment to controlling class sizes has made absorbing that enrollment easier.

For example, Ms. Boone said, in the city's elementary schools, the current class size ratio is 21.5 students per teacher. But among the 579 elementary classrooms, most classrooms have 23 students or fewer. There are 46 classrooms with 27 to 30 students, but there are no classrooms with more than 30 students, Ms. Boone said.

School Committee member Brian O'Connell said he noticed that in kindergarten, for instance, there are 59 classrooms with 23 to 30 students, and asked if there were plans to reduce those class sizes.

Ms. Boone said that the issue with kindergarten class sizes is more specifically associated with facility space limitations. There are 2,300 kindergartners enrolled in city schools, representing around 10 percent of the entire school population.

"Where those numbers were large, we just physically can't put another teacher in there," Ms. Boone said.

Still, in response to a question from committee member Tracy O'Connell Novick, Ms. Boone said city schools are not yet out of space in general. There are space challenges in individual schools, but yet there are other schools where there is space available. And in some schools, the increase in numbers of students might look large, but is absorbed across grade levels. For example, at North, that 57-student increase works out to only 14 more students per grade level.

Ms. Boone noted that the big news to mark the start of the new year was this week's announcement that Union Hill Elementary School exited its Level 4 status with the state, and that the city's other Level 4 school, Chandler Elementary School, is making strides to shed its status as an underperforming school.

Later in the meeting, District 4 City Councilor Sarai Rivera and Casey Starr of the Main South Community Development Corp. told the committee that the school system needs to play a role in dealing with what they described as an uptick in prostitution and drug dealing in Main South.

Ms. Rivera, who lives on Lucian Street, said she fears what her children have to walk by on their way to school in the neighborhood. She said the council and City Manager Michael V. O'Brien have been working with the Main South CDC, but said action must be taken now.

Ms. Boone said it takes a community solution, and said dealing with the public safety situation in Main South is an example of the need for the entire community to come together.

A meeting was held earlier this week involving local and school officials; committee member Jack Foley said one concrete suggestion out of the talks was perhaps increasing lighting and camera surveillance around schools in the neighborhood.

Mr. Foley also noted that there is a perception that increased police presence farther downtown has pushed a lot of the criminal activity outward, which has perhaps caused the spikes.

Mr. O'Connell said it's an issue that truly needs to be addressed. He said he heard from students who attend Claremont Academy that they are afraid to cross Main Street to get to the Boys & Girls Club, a building that was built for them.

"An area that was accessible to them has become inaccessible," Mr. O'Connell said.

Ms. Rivera's son, Caleb Encarnacion-Rivera, a student at University Park Campus School, asked the committee if perhaps training might have a positive effect. He said students could be educated in how to alert police about suspicious activity through the Police Department's anonymous Text-A-Tip program.

School Committee member Donna Colorio proposed several motions reflecting her criticism of the state's adoption of Common Core standards. Ms. Colorio and four people in the audience said Common Core takes local authority away from municipalities and the state and replaces it with a nationally mandated educational system.

Ms. Boone said Massachusetts has not lost out by adopting the Common Core standards. And as far as local control goes, Ms. Boone said, the city has been following state standards for years. And she said 90 percent of the Common Core standards in English language arts, for example, align with state standards.

Mayor Joseph M. Petty, who chairs the School Committee, said the committee couldn't change the city's position on Common Core if it wanted to. Ms. O'Connell Novick appeared more sympathetic with people who may be concerned about Common Core standards, but said Thursday's conversation would have been more appropriate two years ago when Common Core standards were being proposed.